Wreckless Eric ties the musical knot

Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby

Published:09:00Saturday 30 July 2011

MOST of us know Wreckless Eric for his short and sweet punk numbers and Stiff Records releases, but now, the eccentric new waver has branched out to produce a melodic album of covers with singer songwriter (and wife) Amy Rigby.

The critically-acclaimed album is a collection of songs written by other artists and released on Southern Domestic Recordings, the home of Amy Rigby and Wreckless Eric’s 2008 debut, Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby.

It’s a world apart from Wreckless Eric’s life as a punk star. His early Stiff Records singles such as the 1977 track (I’d Go The) Whole Wide World have become part of the punk canon, typifying Wreckless Eric’s penchant for three-chord pop punk ditties.

Amy Rigby, on the other hand, started a country band in eighties New York (a new wave move in its own right) and eventually formed girl pop group The Shams.

Rigby began her solo career in 1996 with Diary of a Mod Housewife, which, like her subsequent four solo albums, embraces country, pop, folk-rock and psychedelia. Two Way Family fuses these divergent musical backgrounds – both on stage and on record.

Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby play at the Greystones, Greystones Road on Friday.